Lost Kingdoms Frontier

Drunn's Stolen Gold

A Thieves Guild has broken into the treasury as part of their efforts to humiliate the local authorities.

On their way back to Shallowford, following their excursion to the dwarven city, the party stopped in Northold to enjoy a meal and drink at The Crimson Sage Taproom. The minstrel had the crowd going, but as he started up a song that not so subtly mocked the “marshalls,” a group of them entered the tavern. They proceeded to intimidate the minstrel and several of the patrons, one hitting on Sevela. The party’s old dwarven comrade, Krorun, happened to enter the taven at that time and promptly initiated a bar fight. A short time later, a larger contingent of the town guard arrived, and the party found themselves under arrest.

The party was brought to the office of Governor Drunn, an austere man with no real sense of humor. He concealed his frustration poorly as he addressed the party, providing an overview of his situation. A local thieves guild has been humiliating his Marshalls, but recently they raised the stakes by raiding the treasury. He admitted that although eager for vengeance, the knights were hesitant for fear of being further humiliated and earning further enmity of the people. Drunn’s idea was to use the party as a tool towards solving the mess. He offered clemency of the charges against the party if they locate the thieves’ stronghold, reiterating that none of the common folk would tell the Marshalls anything. Additionally, he hinted there would be payment if the stolen funds were recovered.

A few inquiries around town led the party to The Blue Demon’s Mug, a tavern rumored to be frequented by members of the guild. From a drunk and obese minstrel by the name of Fat Edward the party learned that the thieves guild intend to give all the tax money back to the people and have a hideout down in the city sewers. Reporting back, the Marshall assigned to the party will informed the characters that the sewers only run under the central, upper-class section of the city. One main sewage tunnel extends across the single main street back into the mountain and an underground river. Neither the Marshall nor Drunn had a map of the sewers – no work had been done on them in decades. The Marshall identified an access route into the sewers near the Governor’s mansion.

Exploring the sewers, the party quickly discovered a number of traps and tripwires set by the thieves guild. While the defenses, slowed the exploration process, they did not present a major challenge to the party. Unsurprisingly, the sewers had inhabitants that had to be dealt with as well, including a large group of monstrous spiders and a ghast that had already turned a couple of unfortunate thieves into ghouls. After several hours of exploration, the party came upon the thieves’ hideout.

The leader, Tamara, requested parley, which the party honored. She informed them that the lion’s share of the treasury funds has already been hauled out from the town to multiple destinations where it was converted into gems, making it effectively unrecoverable. If the party let them escape, she would allow them to return what hadn’t been re-minted. She also volunteered a contact in Shallowford that could prove useful to Zephar. The party agreed to the deal because the stolen funds were largely being redistributed to the over-taxed population, and they had no sense of obligation to Drunn.

After reporting the location of the hideout. Drunn’s men seized the treasury funds and minting equipment. Drunn cleared the charges against the party but refused to give them any reward, since most of the funds were missing, and the party failed to capture the operation’s ringleaders.